AN 3.32 - AN 3:32 To Ānanda | Ānanda Sutta
Translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu
Source: https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/AN/AN3_32.html
License: CC-BY-NC-4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Copyright: Copyright 2014 Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, Revised edition 2017
License notice: Copyright 2014 Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, Revised edition 2017 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Unported. To see a copy of this license visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. “Commercial” shall mean any sale, whether for commercial or non-profit purposes or entities. Questions about this book may be addressed to Metta Forest Monastery Valley Center, CA 92082-1409 U.S.A. Additional resources More Dhamma talks, books and translations by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu are available to download in digital audio and various ebook formats at dhammatalks.org. Printed copy A paperback copy of this book is available free of charge. To request one, write to: Book Request, Metta Forest Monastery, PO Box 1409, Valley Center, CA 92082 USA.
Attribution: From Handful of Leaves, Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu; https://www.dhammatalks.org/Archive/Writings/Ebooks/SuttaPitaka_251113.epub. Copyright 2014 Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, Revised edition 2017 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Unported. To see a copy of this license visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. “Commercial” shall mean any sale, whether for commercial or non-profit purposes or entities. Questions about this book may be addressed to Metta Forest Monastery Valley Center, CA 92082-1409 U.S.A. Additional resources More Dhamma talks, books and translations by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu are available to download in digital audio and various ebook formats at dhammatalks.org. Printed copy A paperback copy of this book is available free of charge. To request one, write to: Book Request, Metta Forest Monastery, PO Box 1409, Valley Center, CA 92082 USA.
Publisher references (not part of the sutta): See also: AN 9:36
Changes: Presentation only: original HTML markup reflowed into plain text; wording, numbering and source repetitions retained. No repetitions expanded.
Completeness: ABBREVIATED. Every source-unit character is preserved, including introductions, notes and verse structure. Thanissaro's collection-level note explicitly states that repetitions were cut: https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/about.html. This is evidence about the translation method, not an assertion that every individual unit contains an omission; no repetitions reconstructed.

To Ven. Ānanda
 Ānanda Sutta (AN 3:32)

Then Ven. Ānanda went to the Blessed One and, on arrival, bowed down to him and sat to one side. As he was sitting there, he said to the Blessed One, “Lord, could it be that a monk would have a concentration-attainment of such a sort that, with regard to this conscious body, he would have no I-making or mine-making conceit-obsession, that with regard to all external themes [topics of concentration] he would have no I-making or mine-making conceit-obsession, and that he would enter & remain in the awareness-release & discernment-release in which there is no I-making or mine-making conceit-obsession for one entering & remaining in it?”

“It could be, Ānanda, that a monk would have a concentration-attainment of a such a sort.…”

“But how, lord, could a monk have a concentration-attainment of such a sort…?”

“There is the case, Ānanda, where a monk is percipient in this way: ‘This is peace, this is exquisite—the pacification of all fabrications; the relinquishing of all acquisitions; the ending of craving; dispassion; cessation; unbinding.’ This is how a monk would have a concentration-attainment of a such a sort that, with regard to this conscious body, he would have no I-making or mine-making conceit-obsession, that with regard to all external themes [topics of concentration] he would have no I-making or mine-making conceit-obsession, and that he would enter & remain in the awareness-release & discernment-release in which there is no I-making or mine-making conceit-obsession for one entering & remaining in it.

“And it was in reference to this that I said, in Puṇṇaka’s Questions in the Pārāyana [Sn 5:3]:

He who has fathomed
the high & low in the world,
for whom there is nothing
perturbing in the world—
  evaporated,1 undesiring,
  untroubled, at peace—
he, I tell you, has crossed over birth
      & aging.

Note

1. According to Nd II, this means that one’s bodily, verbal, and mental misconduct has evaporated away, along with all one’s defilements.